Dr. David Koppmann with award
and lecture at the 37th Baugrundtagung 2022
in Wiesbaden, Germany 

October 2022

After a four-year break due to the Corona pandemic, the 37th Baugrundtagung of the German Society for Geotechnical Engineering (DGGT) took place again in Wiesbaden from October 5th to 8th, 2022. At the conference visitors could attend a scientific lecture program as well as an accompanying exhibition to be informed on current topics in the fields of geotechnics and to exchange with colleagues. 

During the opening event on Thursday, 06.10.2022, the traditional award ceremony of the Carl-Rappert- Grundbaupreis took place. This prize, donated by the company Keller Grundbau GmbH on the occasion of its 125th anniversary, has been awarded since 1986 for outstanding achievements by young scientists in the field of geotechnics in Germany. 

This year, 3rd place was awarded to Dr.-Ing. David Koppmann for his dissertation on the „Investigation of the thermal activation of steel sheet pile walls", which he completed during his time as a research assistant working under Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Martin Ziegler at the Chair of Geotechnical Engineering in Civil Engineering and Institute of Foundation Engineering, Soil Mechanics, Rock Mechanics and Hydraulic Engineering at RWTH Aachen University, graduating with honors. In his thesis, Dr.-Ing. 

Koppmann investigated the performance of thermally activated sheet piles in a large-scale test station, developed a calculation approach for the thermal design of energy sheet piles and was able to confirm the practical suitability of the systems by realizing first demonstration plants. 

Also on Thursday, 06.10.2022, Dr. Koppmann gave a presentation on "The thermal activation of steel sheet piles as a measure for CO2-saving" in the session "Geotechnics in the light of climate change/Sustainability in foundation engineering". In his entertaining presentation he introduced systems for the thermal activation of sheet piles and illustrated their energy as well as their CO2-saving potential. In addition, he gave an insight into selected projects. Among others, he presented the first large-scale project in Germany in the Havelquartier Potsdam. 

Further information on the thermal activation of steel sheet piles can be found here.